What You Need to Know: Good Jake Arrieta showed up once again, falling just one out short of tallying an eighth consecutive quality start, but the righty struck out eight and allowed only a run over 5 ⅔ innings. An early solo shot by Ian Happ and a timely Javier Baez single put the Cubs […]
Author: Zack Moser
Jake Arrieta: Great Again?
Last Friday, Jake Arrieta rode an effective “slutter” to another quality start, lowering his ERA to 3.63, and earning a victory over the visiting Blue Jays. His six strikeouts, two walks, six hits allowed, and one run allowed over 6 ⅔ innings lengthened a solid streak of quality starts to seven games, and he is […]
Zack’s Sack: A Wrigleyville Mailbag, Vol. 8
Welcome back to Zack’s Sack, the BP Wrigleyville mailbag! It’s been a bit since we’ve done a mailbag here, but the Cubs are as weird as ever, and so we have a few questions from the loyal readers this week. As always, the questions have been left unedited to make our readers look as bad […]
Game 115 Recap: Diamondbacks 6, Cubs 2
What You Need to Know: Jon Lester pitched well until the sixth inning, when the wheels came off. Arizona scored four in that inning, and the Cubs couldn’t eek out a single run versus D-Backs starter Patrick Corbin, rallying late for two versus erstwhile Cub Fernando Rodney before dropping the second game of the series. […]
I’m Walkin’ Here: A Bullpen Story
The Cubs bullpen, by and large, has been good, as it was expected to be. Overall, the bullpen sports an impressive 4.01 DRA, good for fourth in the majors, whereas the starters rank 14th with a 4.86. On the more traditional side, the relievers have fared just as well, with a 3.45 ERA that ranks […]
Grimm’s Decline
Two years ago, I wrote my second feature ever at BP Wrigleyville about Justin Grimm’s newfound success after he ditched his slider for a curveball. His 2015 and 2016 seasons were improvements on a breakout 2014, as he struck out around 30 percent of hitters while allowing few home runs. After two seasons of making […]
Gauging Willson Contreras’s Excellence
The 2017 season opened with a walk-off loss to the Cardinals, on national television, at the hands of the Actually Bad Randal Grichuk. Coming off a World Series win, it was difficult to feel down about the loss—but then they kept coming. Until recently, it seemed impossible for the Cubs to snap off a winning […]
Game 90 Recap: Cubs 10, Orioles 3
What You Need to Know: The Cubs’ bats remained lively, continuing Friday night’s hitting barrage, and Jake Arrieta settled down after a rocky first to deliver the Cubs an impressive victory. Albert Almora and Addison Russell homered, and Jason Heyward added a bases-clearing triple to put the game out of reach in the middle innings. […]
Zack’s Sack: A Wrigleyville Mailbag, Vol 7., ALL-STAR EDITION
Hey now, and welcome to the special All-Star edition of Zack’s Sack! The Cubs made a huge trade this week, and Wade Davis blew the All-Star game for the National League. So, don’t delay, act now—let’s dive into the sack. As always, Twitter replies have been left unedited to capture the immediate nature of the medium, […]
Cubs Bolster Rotation, Land Quintana
José Quintana will still be in pinstripes, but he’ll be pitching his home games a few miles north as of this morning. In a blockbuster deal completed before the All-Star break even ended, the Cubs acquired the Colombian left-hander Quintana from the White Sox in exchange for top prospect Eloy Jiménez, top pitching prospect Dylan Cease, […]